Fake medicines pose health risks, economic costs; India fails to act

This attitude will need to change if India is serious about escaping the middle-income trap and joining the ranks of high-income nations - even three or four decades from now

Last week, two pieces of news were widely reported by most Indian media outlets. The first was that a case had been registered against a group of people who were supplying fake drugs — including antibiotics — to government hospitals in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. The pills and tablets supplied were mostly composed of talcum powder and starch. There were no active pharmaceutical ingredients or formulations in them at all.

Almost immediately after this news was reported, another equally worrying piece of news emerged. A recent survey by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO)